Suspicious brush cytology is an indication for liver transplantation evaluation in primary sclerosing cholangitis

Table 2 Demographics, laboratory results and endoscopic retrograde cholangiography findings in patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis and low-grade dysplasia, high-grade dysplasia and cholangiocarcinoma

	LGD	HGD	CCA	P value	P value (LGD vs HGD)	P value (HGD vs CCA)	P value (LGD vs CCA)
n	16	10	19	.	.	.	.
Male/female	10/6	8/2	14/5	0.701	.	.	.
Age, yr	32 (26-48)	48 (35-59)	55 (37-60)	0.003	0.056	0.896	0.004
PSC duration, yr	4.1 (2.2-8.3)	4.4 (2.3-7.9)	4.0 (0.3-17.1)	0.948	.	.	.
Symptoms, n	12	8	16	0.890	.	.	.
Icterus, n	2	4	12	0.014	0.483	1.000	0.024
Pruritus, n	9	3	8	1.000	.	.	.
Cholangitis/fever, n	4	2	8	0.415	.	.	.
Fatigue, n	7	3	4	1.000	.	.	.
Pain, n	5	3	4	0.863	.	.	.
MELD score	7.6 (7.4-11.0)	7.6 (6.4-8.7)	7.7 (6.4-10.4)	0.883	.	.	.
IBD, n	10	5	15	0.307	.	.	.
ALP, U/L	175 (90-324)	89 (69-176)	237 (158-396)	0.214	.	.	.
AST, U/L	45 (32-118)	51 (34-64)	59 (38-94)	0.618	.	.	.
ALT, U/L	61 (31-113)	56 (30-102)	55 (46-112)	0.717	.	.	.
Bilirubin, μmol/L	23 (13-32)	11 (8-22)	25 (15-47)	0.354	.	.	.
CA19-9, KU/L	10 (3-22)	10 (5-16)	120 (14-415)	0.002	1.000	0.006	0.006
CEA, μg/L	1.3 (1.0-2.7)	2.4 (1.4-2.9)	2.1 (1.4-5.8)	0.081	.	.	.
mERC score
Intrahepatic (IQR)	6 (4-6)	6 (5-7)	6 (6-6)	0.440	.	.	.
Extrahepatic (IQR)	3 (2-6)	4 (2-6)	4 (2-5)	0.613	.	.	.
Total score (IQR)	9 (7-11)	11 (8-12)	9 (8-11)	0.523	.	.	.

Values are presented as median (IQR) unless otherwise indicated. Jonckeere-Terpstra test was used to analyse differences of continuous variables, and Fisher’s exact test was used for dichotomous variables. Significance values were adjusted using the Bonferroni correction for multiple tests. CCA: Cholangiocarcinoma; HGD: High-grade dysplasia; IQR: Interquartile rate; LGD: Low-grade dysplasia; mERC score: Modified Amsterdam ERC score; MELD score: Model for end-stage liver disease score; IBD: Inflammatory bowel disease; ALP: Alkaline phosphatase; AST: Aspartate aminotransferase; ALT: Alanine aminotransferase; PSC: Primary sclerosing cholangitis; CA19-9: Carbohydrate antigen 19-9; CEA: Carcinoembryonic antigen.